


The Last Data Set

by QueenofCheese (Supertights)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Age Difference, Asexuality Spectrum, Dubious Science, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, For Science!, Gen, Kissing, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 19:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12091623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supertights/pseuds/QueenofCheese
Summary: “Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.”Pidge has one night left to finish her experiment.





	The Last Data Set

Shiro likes wandering the ship at night, padding barefoot through the halls when his team is safely asleep, and all is well. Sleep for him is hard fought, fraught with sounds and smells he’s mostly relieved he’s forgotten. If the traces are enough to unsettle him, or worse, trigger an episode, then almost reluctantly, he’s glad the visuals are not there at his beck and call.

Sometimes he will strike a straggler, Pidge still staring deeply at her laptop in the lab, or Keith who struggles with his own demons usually on the training deck. Lance haunts the night with an intense longing to go home and see his family, Hunk, with all his secrets locked up inside; even Allura on the observation deck, lost to the stars, and Coran talking to himself in a soft voice to people long gone.

The night is rarely as quiet as it is tonight. Tonight, Shiro hasn’t seen any familiar faces.

Until he rounds the corner to the kitchen and is greeted by Pidge sitting up on the counter top, surrounded by paperwork, laptop, Lance’s phone, and a few other devices he's seen her use but hasn’t thought to ask after their purpose. Tilting his head, he takes in the scene. She’s set up shop.

She turns to him almost immediately, her eyes narrowed and calculating. He stops in place. It’s a visceral reaction to a threat he can’t see yet.

Science is afoot.

“Shiro.” She purrs, her voice soft and thoughtful but expectant. She’s been waiting for him.

She’s changed in ways similar to Matt. She’s become visibly stronger, harder even in many ways than Shiro could confess to be. There’s a difference between being a fighter and being a survivor but both are choices, even if made under duress.

“Pidge,” he replies, moving towards the chiller. His back is to her now. A risk under the circumstances but he will weather the consequences.

All he hears are voices though, happy in a way he hasn’t heard for a while, and laughter, joyous and playful. He wants to turn around, he wants to see what she’s watching so intently. It’s from the time he wasn’t here though, that much he can ascertain because there is a voice, too similar to his own but speaking in cadences he never uses, using words he would hesitate to use around his team, a stranger.

Shiro’s appetite is gone so he plucks a water out.

“Can you grab something from the chiller for me?” she asks, now with a creeping uncertainty, like she’s suddenly not sure about something.

“Sure,” he opens the door again and waits for further instruction.

“It’s at the back. It has a note on it.”

He stoops a little to look past everything. There is something there, hidden right at the back with a note. 'Katie’s, don’t touch! Yes I have licked it!' and a skull with crossbones. He pulls it out and shows it to her. Pidge nods and takes it from him, setting the plate on the counter between a Venn diagram and a technical spec of something that looks a little like….

“Goodnight, Pidge, try to get some sleep.” He attempts to escape before it’s too late.

“Um,” she begins ominously, like there was more to follow but she was still phrasing it in her head.

Stopping, his head drops and he waits patiently for her. He has all the time in the world for his paladins, he reminds himself.

“Long story short then,” she says with a trace of humour, he still doesn’t look at her though. “I’d like to complete a scientific experiment I began a year ago. It has to be now or it affects the results and I won’t be able to replicate it. I need you for that.”

He turns to look at her, his eyebrow the only thing giving away his scepticism. “Okay.”

She picks up Lance’s phone again and gestures for him to come over. He is reluctant. Doesn’t want to watch what she was watching. It’s a can of worms that needs to stay shut. “It’s okay, this is the other version, I edited the original video, Shiro, I knew it would make you uncomfortable.”

Shiro leans his hip against the counter and she plays it, holding the tiny screen where they can watch together. There’s a banner in the dining hall. Cake on the table. All the paladins are standing around it, they look tired, dark shadows chasing their eyes despite the smiles on their faces. _“When do we set fire to the cake?”_ asks Allura, her hands clenched with excitement, the mice cling to her hair. _“Happy womb expulsion day, Five!”_ adds Coran happily.

There’s a phrase Shiro never wants to hear again. “It was your birthday?” So that would make tomorrow….

“That’s not important, you missed Lance’s birthday as well but that’s another video altogether. Keep watching, for science,” she says, but her eyes are twin sparks locked behind glass. He doesn’t want to watch, he wants to _be_ there. The video is disjointed in places, missing ticks where she’s removed something-- no, removed someone. Then it runs seamlessly again as she cuts the cake. “He left at that point.” There is a flatness in the statement.

Her voice on the video is tiny, she is overcome with emotion, it’s rare for Pidge to lose control. _“Thanks, really, I-I,”_ Pidge takes her glasses off for a tick wiping them slowly as she centres herself.   _“There’s something I need some help with. I want to conduct an experiment. For science.”_ In the video Pidge holds up a worksheet. _“I need to test a hypothesis and you guys can help me.”_

 _“Can I help also, Pidge?”_ asks Allura uncertainly, mistaking the guys part of this instance to be gender specific.

 _“Anything, Pidge,”_ says Hunk, reaching over to squeeze her shoulder. Agreement is unanimous.

In the video, she straightens up and her expression brightens as she explains what she wants. Shiro chokes on his space water. The video gets worse and better, then much better, until he finds himself crying with laughter. He feels genuine pleasure for the first time since he came back.

Pidge sets aside the phone with a smirk and picks up a clipboard. Where had she found that? “So I can’t complete this without _your_ participation because there was no way in hell I was kissing that clone.”

“You knew it was a clone?” he says, surprised by the fact someone had noticed the differences that were so glaring to him.

“Of course we did, Shiro. It took longer because we--” she licks her lips nervously. “We wanted it to be you, we _needed_ it to be you. We were all pretty reluctant to admit it wasn’t you even when he was so damned obvious and annoying! Which you’re not,” she adds quickly. "It meant you might have been dead after all. Thank you for not being dead."

He puts an arm around her and leans his chin on her shoulder for a few ticks.

She clears her throat and taps a finger on her clipboard. “My experiment."

Shiro peeks down at her research before she can stop him. 

     Keith: warm lips, no tongue, dry, passionless, over too quick, like how his eyelashes felt against my skin.

     Hunk: the diagrams and graphs were a surprise, why is he so shy, his lips were nice, no tongue, perfect gentleman.

     Lance: hot lips, moist, so much tongue, not enough air, accompanying saliva issues, enthusiasm appreciated.

     Allura: perfect amount of tongue, cool soft lips, breath smells like fruit, nice.

     Coran: a peck on the lips so quick I think I imagined it, moustache more wiry than expected.

     Kolivan: furry, like kissing my grandpa.

     Shiro:

There's more of course, other details, times and which body part was where during, but he stops when he sees his name is on the list with a note in red, underlined. No data. Oh no. She covers it up with one of Hunk's diagrams.

“Shiro, no peeking, I expected better of you.” She's not angry though, a little nervous maybe. “In about fifteen minutes, the experiment will be rendered useless. I need one last data set so I can complete my analysis.”

He nods. How is he voiceless in this? What would he even say?

She swipes her finger through the cake, it looks like a slice of solid coolant with 'Ha' and 'Bi' and 'Pi' smeared in silver across the top but it smells like chocolate. How is that possible? Pidge holds her cake encrusted finger up in front of his face. “Try it,” she says.

He looks at her finger, then at her face, then back at the finger. “Pidge….”

The finger jabs at his mouth. “Try. It.”

She’s looking for something here, what? Platonic? Romantic? It's a minefield of possibilities.

“I saved it for you, you know,” she offers, with a sad smile. “I had to fight Lance off twice, Hunk too many times to count, even sleepy Keith once.”

Shiro sucks the cake off her finger with a scowl before she can crush his heart with guilt any further. He ignores the hitch in her breath as he does it, because damn, it's good cake. She jots down a note.

“Great! Now kiss me. For science.” She adjusts her seat on the counter so he can fit between her legs and braces her hands either side of her body. To her credit she doesn't purse her lips, she just waits, eyes closed.

“For the record,” he says mildly, as he swipes another finger full of cake and licks it off, “you are banned from using that phrase in my hearing for the next year.”

She gasps, eyes flying back open. “What? No, I-- six months.”

“Two years.” He really needs to find a spork for the cake.

“Fine, one year.”

He smirks and relents. “Six months then.”

Okay. Time to do this thing. For science. “Pidge,” he says softly, as he stands close to her. “I didn’t exactly have time to do a lot of kissing in the last few years. I’m kind of rusty at it.”

“But I thought you and Allura had….” She wiggles her eyebrows at him suggestively and her gaze narrows. “And Keith. Maybe Lance. Hunk even. Those lips are made for it.”

“What?” He’s dumbfounded. Truly. He’s kissing everyone on the quiznaking ship now?

“Kidding!” she says, but her eyes say not really. “Let’s do this. For--”

“Pidge,” he warns.

“Call me Katie.” Her arms scoop around his neck and she plays with his long hair for a few ticks. In the ponytail, his hair is fair game when they’re this close, her expression is thoughtful. She reaches down and scratches another note on the clipboard then resumes playing with his hair. It’s oddly soothing. He hadn’t thought it would be but it is.

“There were more people around when you did this before.” So many more people. Did that make it better or worse? Maybe that made it worse.

“Hmmm,” she hums neutrally. “You’re overthinking.”

“What would your father say? Or-or Matt?” He unashamedly plays for time. Her hands capture his cheeks and hold them, thumbs easing over his cheekbones. She glances at the clipboard and he moves minutely away, her eyes find his again.

“They’d say, don’t lead me on, don’t keep a lady waiting. Then Matt would crack a joke about me being a lady and dad would grab him by the ear.” Her lips brush against his, just lightly, then she pulls back and he makes a noise in the back of his throat. “Is this really okay, Shiro, you seem a little freaked out.”

“For science,” he says, his hands resting on either side of the counter top next to hers, he leans in, closes his eyes, and kisses her. She sets the pace, her tongue finds his for a tick, then she withdraws it briefly before grazing it back across his lower lip, his tongue again, she simply tries things with a freedom that being observed by her peers hadn’t given her. One of her hands finds his chest then stomach, and yes, she’s groping him but he smiles, it’s okay for her to experiment. It's safe. Then they just… lose their sense of time.

One of the devices on the counter beeps and they come apart reluctantly, looking down at it. Maybe they were both a little touch starved, he thinks, but she looks back at him immediately like she could go another few rounds. For science of course.

“Happy Birthday, Katie,” he says, picking up the plate of cake and the squeezy of water. “See you later.” It’s the morning, she has to be up for training later, birthday or not, she’s training today.

“Don’t you want to know the conclusion?” she asks, pushing her glasses up her nose. She’s scribbling furious notes. He wonders if they’re good or bad, then shrugs.

“No,” he replies. “Just enjoy the endorphin rush. And get some sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a piece of dumb shit I wrote about Pidge trying to work out some personal stuff about herself. My knowledge of scientific method is staggeringly terrible.
> 
> I'm bad at tagging so if there are tags I should put in, please suggest them.
> 
> I feel so sick right now, let's chalk this one up to fever dreams. If you're reading my adult Pidge/Shiro series, don't stress, I'm writing a few chapters ahead, I just really need to get these out of my head while I'm writing that so it doesn't slow me up.
> 
> Quote attributed to Alex Jason (by Adam Savage).


End file.
